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Electrical & Wire Harness Design Blog

Telematics Update has published its Automotive HMI Report 2013, containing an analysis of human-machine interface (HMI) features by vehicle segment and an overview of “best in market” HMI designs, including those from automakers such as BMW, Audi, Ford, and General Motors.
The report includes insights from more than 40 HMI experts from firms such as Continental, DENSO, Fiat, Garmin, GM, Harman, … Read More

Ford offers AppLink, an application programming interface (API) that developers can use to make their smartphone apps compatible with Ford’s SYNC infotainment system.
Earlier this month General Motors revealed its plan for working with developers to bring smartphone apps to GM vehicles. The company announced a flexible application framework that includes APIs and a software development kit (SDK) … Read More

It might seem as if it’s taken MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport), the automotive multimedia and infotainment standard, a long time to catch on, and there are some who suggest that it’s time has already passed, now that Ethernet is the Next Big Thing in automotive networking. But that’s relative if not downright wrong, according to Henry Muyshondt, Technical Liaison of the MOST Cooperation.
The … Read More

How close are we to the reality of autonomous driving? Is it closer than we might think, still years away and dependent on the widespread deployment of V2X technology, or both?
Tier one supplier Continental completed a two-week, 6,000-mile automated driving endurance test on public roads in Nevada. It credited knowledge gained from the car that won the DARPA Urban Challenge in 2007 and from HAVEit, … Read More

General Motors (GM) was an early adopter of rapid prototyping (RP) technology for parts and subassemblies as well as for electrical/electronic applications. In the latter realm, for example, it developed a two-mode hybrid powertrain control system in less than the expected development time – four years from initial design to vehicle production.
Larry Nitz, executive director of hybrid and electric powertrains, … Read More

It was fun while it lasted and quite rewarding for Johnson Controls-Saft (JCS), the advanced battery development joint venture (JV) involving Johnson Controls and Saft Batteries, but all good things come an end, and it appears as though the end may come in Delaware Chancery Court, where Johnson Controls filed suit to dissolve the JV the firms formed in 2006.
Saft says it will oppose the suit. It says … Read More

I thought everybody but me had a smart phone but Tony Kraatz, lead engineer for GM’s new infotainment system, the Chevy MyLink, reminded me that, in fact, not everybody has one, so you won’t need one to use MyLink. Any Bluetooth phone or USB device will work, and if you don’t have either of those you can use the 7-inch color touch screen, steering wheel controls, or voice commands to control the radio, … Read More

The year has scarcely begun and it’s already looking like a momentous one for telematics. OnStar announced that it will make its key features available on non-GM vehicles via a standalone rearview mirror bearing OnStar’s trademark blue button.
And then Hyundai announced Blue Link, powered by ATX Group with help from Aeris Communications for cellular connectivity and TeleCommunication Systems for turn-by-turn … Read More

In-vehicle Internet radio has such an air of inevitability about it that I almost wonder why it isn’t common already, but a moment’s thought and a glance at just one aggregation of Internet stations – iTunes, for example – brings the problem into focus. There must be a gazillion Internet radio stations out there, so once the Internet connectivity problem has been solved, how is the tuning going to work?
Pandora … Read More

The folks at USCAR drew my attention to cyber-physical systems (CPS), a discipline of keen interest to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and to a growing number of universities, as well as to Ford, GM, Chrysler, and other automakers.
USCAR thinks of CPS as a network of highly sophisticated electromechanical subsystems autonomously controlling hybrid drive, automated parking assist, crash avoidance, … Read More

Cars today have more electronic content than ever, which means more circuits, more wiring, and more weight. At the same time, automotive semiconductor and networking technologies pack more performance into smaller space. How does that net out?
I posed the question to Paul Geyer, who has design responsibility for connectors, schematics and wiring tools in Chrysler’s Power and Signal Distribution group … Read More

The New York Times published a positive story about Detroit this week (Oct. 12). It referenced the fact that U.S. brands edged imports in J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Study, 108 to 109 PP100 (problems per-100 vehicles within 90 days of purchase).
Ford cracked the IQS top five for the first time, and Lincoln had 23 fewer problems per 100 vehicles than it did last year. Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac all … Read More

I wanted to learn more about AUTOSAR, and so I spoke with two experts from General Motors – Nady Boules, director of GM’s Electrical & Controls Integration Lab, and Massimo Osella, lab group manager for electronic controls and software architecture at GM R&D.
GM doesn’t have AUTOSAR software components in a production vehicle as yet, but as a core partner, the firm has been working with the AUTOSAR … Read More

We form opinions quickly these days and increasingly we gravitate toward those who agree with us and tune out opposing arguments. It happens with political and social issues and it’s happening with Toyota as the company struggles to determine the cause(s) of unintended acceleration. Some have empathy while others delight in the company’s difficulties.
One problem with polarization is that details can … Read More

Remember a year or so ago when GM and Chrysler were teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and debate raged – as it still does – over federal involvement in the filings? Would either have survived without the government’s help, or would they have been liquidated? And if one or both had ceased to exist, where would the automotive industry (not to mention the U.S. economy) be now? How many suppliers would … Read More

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